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Hunt defends Premier League wages

Republic of Ireland international and Star Sunday columnist Stephen Hunt has blasted the British Minister for Sport following his attack on Premier League players and the wages they earn.

Gerry Sutcliffe picked on John Terry, Chelsea, Manchester United and professional footballers throughout England and labelled what they earn as 'obscene'.

But Reading star Hunt, writing in Star Sunday today, said: 'This life I now enjoy isn't an accident. This Premiership profession I find myself in didn't just click into place like a lottery win.

'I didn't just wake up one morning with a big pay packet in the post and a shiny new car outside the front door of my detached house in Berkshire.'

He added: 'I have worked bloody hard to get here just like John Terry and every other player in the Premiership.

'For every John Terry there are a hundred kids out there with shattered dreams, kids who never made it. Mr Sutcliffe wasn't around when I was stuck in digs near Crystal Palace, homesick and consigned to a diet of Spaghetti Hoops every day by a landlady too mean to spend the club allowance on proper food for a growing teenager.'

 
Reading and Ireland star Stephen Hunt
Reading and Ireland star Stephen Hunt
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